Balancing hydropower and ecology: development of benthic macroinvertebrate-based tools for hydromorphological quality assessment and monitoring.

This study will develop macroinvertebrate trait-based assessment tools to quantify the unique impacts of individual dams on substrate and flow regime to facilitate their effective management and relicensing.

There is an urgent need to resolve synergies and conflicts between the goals of several EU directives and legislation such as the Renewable Energy Directive, Nature Restoration Law, Water Framework Directive and Habitat Directive. A major step to achieve these overarching goals is the development of reliable tools for assessing hydropower dam impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

Compared to previous studies this project takes an innovative approach as it will develop tools using high-resolution discharge data (hourly measurements over 12 months), incorporates spatial and seasonal aspects, and will evaluate dam impacts ta both modelled and empirical based reference conditions.